2. Overall Situation in Afghanistan

The problems in Afghanistan are complex and much remains to be accomplished. In the short term, extraordinary efforts are still necessary to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the Afghan people. But at the same time, the United States is heartened by the initial progress toward a new era of peace, stability, and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan. With that progress will come new hope of dignity and opportunity for Afghan women, children, and refugees. The fall of the Taliban and the creation of an interim administration to guide the country toward a permanent broad-based government have begun to brighten Afghanistan’s future, even as important challenges remain.

Beginning in March, thousands of students—both boys and girls—have started studying hard in repaired schools, using new school supplies. Wells have been dug, and irrigation canals that were silted up for years are now carrying water. Tens of thousands of tons of food have been delivered around the country. Construction kits are being delivered all over Afghanistan, allowing citizens to repair their own homes. Medical care and immunizations have been provided to hundreds of thousands of Afghans, to whom virtually nothing was available just months ago, especially to women. Roads have been repaired. Libraries and veterinary clinics have been reopened for the first time in many years.

The following section gives an overall assessment of the challenges met and still underway in Afghanistan, and of the U.S. response to them: first in the security and then in the economic realm. It is against this backdrop that the intensive U.S. effort to implement the Afghan Women and Children’s Relief Act continues to unfold.

Security: Challenge and Response
The general situation in Afghanistan is still not fully stable, reflecting a fluid political and military environment. We remain concerned about potential volatility as the Afghan government continues to attempt to assert control over a country characterized by over two decades of war, natural disaster and instability.

Security issues facing the country, particularly in remote areas, include continuing military operations, landmines, and banditry, which is sometimes associated with drug trafficking. Insecurity clearly impedes the reconstruction process, including efforts to ameliorate conditions for Afghan women, children, and refugees.

To address these challenges, the U.S. government is assisting the Afghans with both direct military assistance and training to help them establish their own security institutions and operations. U.S. and allied forces are hunting down remaining Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters, and assisting the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul. When ISAF’s mandate came up for extension in June, we supported extending its tenure through the end of this year. We are helping to train an Afghan army, and contributing to the training and equipping of an Afghan police force. Moreover, we are using special forces and civil affairs teams, as appropriate, to help local commanders deal with contentious issues and discourage conflict among the ranks.

The FY 02 Emergency Supplemental Request for Afghanistan includes substantial sums dedicated to enhancing Afghanistan’s security and political stability. While the details of this package are beyond the scope of this report, major categories and projected costs include Economic Support Funds (ESF) to help finance the country’s Transitional Administration and political process, at $50 million; ESF programs to support demobilization and reintegration of former combatants, at $30 million; Peacekeeping Operations (PKO), at $20 million; and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to train and outfit Afghanistan’s new national army, at $50 million.

We are also continuing a very active campaign to minimize the landmine threat. The Department of State estimates that as many as four million landmines still lie in wait in Afghanistan, with deaths and injuries averaging approximately 200 each month. In addition to these direct casualties, landmines prevent children from attending school, water wells from being fully utilized, and land from being tilled. They obstruct commerce from safely traversing roads and bridges, and instill lasting psychological trauma in those continually at risk. And while women may not fight as often as men in battle, they may nevertheless, as Secretary Powell has observed, become "the victims of landmine accidents, because they tend to be the collectors of firewood and water and do the heavy fieldwork."

This year, the Department of State has committed $7 million to support mine clearance and mine education efforts. Most of these funds are spent directly on physical mine clearance and protection projects. In fact, humanitarian demining is regrettably the largest "industry" in Afghanistan today, employing over 4,500 deminers and support staff.

In another portion of this program, beginning this month and continuing over the next year, we will spend approximately $700,000 for mine risk education initiatives, mainly oriented toward Afghan children. This will be carried out via a grant to UNICEF, using the U.S. NGO Save the Children as implementing partner and local Afghan NGOs as subcontractors to bring this vital message to Afghan schools and radio programs. We have committed an additional $700,000 to conduct two surveys on new contamination by landmines and unexploded ordinance, and on the status of national disabilities and injuries. These surveys will aid relief workers in preventing further injuries, guide landmine removal, and support victims’ assistance programs.

On the counternarcotics front, which generally affects women and children only indirectly but bears on the overall security climate, the Department of State has budgeted $5 million for FY 02 and $6 million for FY 03. In addition, we have requested a major increase, of $60 million, in FY 02 supplemental funding for a comprehensive, interagency counternarcotics effort. This would include police training and administration of justice, and related program development and support. These funds would support poppy eradication and alternative agriculture and other employment programs, and assist in establishing a drug control coordination office and a professional cadre of police and judicial and legal personnel.

The Economy: Challenge and Response
The nature and magnitude of the economic challenge in Afghanistan can be grasped in a few simple sentences and statistics. Most of Afghanistan’s institutions, and much of its physical infrastructure, lie in ruins. Around half the total population of 25 million has been relegated to abject poverty; malnutrition is widespread. More than six million Afghans are at least partially dependent on food aid. No more than half of working-age Afghans are able to find any employment, and a mere 30 percent can read and write in any language.

The scale of such problems is matched by the scale of U.S. assistance to Afghanistan. Even before September 11 of last year, the United States was easily the largest single donor to Afghanistan in the world; and Afghanistan received more U.S. humanitarian aid (as distinct from development or military assistance) than any other country, amounting to well over $100 million annually for the previous several years. In pre-September 11 FY 01, this figure had already risen to $174 million, reflecting acute humanitarian needs related to the increasingly severe drought conditions in the country.

Since then, in the current fiscal year alone, the United States has, as noted above, already contributed $379 million for Afghan relief and reconstruction. In addition, at the Tokyo donors’ conference on January 21-22, 2002, the United States pledged $296.75 million for Afghanistan over the coming year, and indicated that at least this amount would be considered for each of the succeeding two years. Of this year’s pledge, approximately half--$167 million--is managed by USAID, often channeled through international agencies and NGOs. The remainder consists primarily of direct U.S. government contributions to UNDP and other UN or international institutions. Smaller but still significant allotments are awarded for programs operating through other agencies, including the Department of State.

In operating this array of programs, every effort is being made to minimize delays due to transport, processing, or other factors, as well as any necessary costs for oversight and administration. The most urgent relief assistance has generally reached its targets very rapidly; reconstruction assistance is moving at the more deliberate pace set by the complex requirements of planning, preparation and consultation. To cite just one relevant statistic, of the $167 million USAID pledge from the January donors’ conference, fully two-thirds ($112 million) had been obligated for specific projects by May 2, 2002. In order to further expedite food aid, the most urgent category of assistance, USAID and the Department of Agriculture have worked together to arrange grain "swaps" with Pakistan, and to coordinate massive rapid commodity shipments to Afghanistan through Central Asian as well as other neighboring countries with the UN’s World Food Program (WFP).

Thus far, the U.S. response to the economic challenge has been dominated by efforts to meet the most immediate and acute economic subsistence needs of the Afghan people: food, water, shelter, and medicine. In the first category, that of food supplies, we are moving beyond urgent relief to rehabilitation of what was once a thriving agricultural economy. Since October 2001, the WFP, with the support of USAID, has delivered over 400,000 tons of food to Afghanistan, of which the vast majority (at least 340,000 tons) has been successfully distributed throughout the areas of greatest need in the country.

While the United States will continue such efforts, we also want to bring more lasting assurance of food security to Afghanistan. A good first step was taken recently with the delivery of 7,000 tons of wheat seed to Afghan farmers, whose seed stocks were otherwise too depleted to plant a new crop. The provision of agricultural staples and equipment, along with education for farmers and renovation of irrigation systems will help Afghanistan regain its agricultural self-sufficiency.

U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID’s) current annual level of comprehensive support for WFP activities in Afghanistan accounts for approximately $100 million, an understandably large figure in light of the extraordinary requirements of the moment. The FY 02 emergency supplemental request to Congress for Afghanistan includes an additional $40 million for International Disaster Assistance, mainly aimed at rehabilitating the agricultural sector, so that it can "graduate" from this degree of dependence. This program, if approved, would feature projects targeted to provide income generation opportunities for women, while incorporating functional literacy training, along with expansion of micro-credit programs for women.

Looking further ahead, as we progress in meeting Afghanistan’s immediate and medium-term needs, we will broaden our efforts to encompass longer-term objectives for the reconstruction of the country. The United States has four basic objectives for this effort: to repair the damaged Afghan infrastructure and stabilize political and economic conditions there; to help establish a lasting system of good governance for the Afghan people; to restore food security and health services; and to repatriate and reintegrate Afghan refugees.

Within that framework, the pace and many of the details of this long-term undertaking must, as noted above, take fully into account indigenous capabilities, sensitivities, and constraints. This may give some cause for caution, but also for hope. For, as an NGO report correctly notes,

It is important to emphasize that, in addition to specific initiatives targeted for women, the reconstruction program as a whole deliberately includes women as direct participants and beneficiaries. For example, teacher training and textbook distribution programs reach out to female teachers, students, and schools. In addition, U.S.-administered health projects focus particularly on maternal and child health issues.